Oh, there's nothing necessarily wrong with it or its premise. It's not the subject matter per se (it's clearly not a detached, historical game), but the way they're selling it. I mean, "the suffering of the Spanish conquistadors at the hands of the savage natives," really?

They are specifically trying to leverage the Streisand effect.

edit:

Ah, I see that isn't actually their quote.

Also, I hadn't read the Steam description (just watched the video--saw hexagons and knew it wasn't for me), which makes it sound a little more reasonable.

The interface is what is pissing me off most about Netflix lately. They're monkeying with the user interface and many of their decisions seem to be driven by the marketing department and are aimed at making the library seem bigger than it is. It's not as bad as it was, at least you can sort by rating and etc. again, but you used to be able to get a big sortable, static list of titles you could just scroll through. The problem was that you could easily see exactly how many titles they had for a given genre or whatever. It's not that I have any particular interest in counting videos, but I don't like them intentionally making it harder to use by taking away basic features. Of course, as I said, InstantWatcher does take care of that well.

My opinion of Netflix is mainly colored by the fact that I've been using it since it started, and up until about a year-and-a-half ago, it was constantly improving in every sense. Then, suddenly, it started to go downhill, and the hill seems to be steepening as more time goes by.

I definitely stand by Amazon Prime being awful as a video service (the shipping part, of course, pays for itself many times over), but I hate the interface to browse streaming videos. This is mostly due to the categorizing, which seems to have been done entirely by machine word-matching on descriptions to start with. Also, the video performance is considerably worse for me than Netflix (which is surely ISP and/or location related). They are, however, improving. I still can't shake the impression that Amazon really isn't all that into it's Prime video service as a product itself, but rather as a method of funneling money to its other services.

I would guess that if you didn't like Red Orchestra 2, odds are you won't like Rising Storm either. It still feels a little clumsy, and the cover system fights you as least as much as it helps you. That said, I think it's an improvement in many respects. So if you almost, but not quite, liked RO2, Rising Storm might be enough to get you over the hump of getting used to its oddities.

If, by "Red Orchestra" you are going back to Osfront or Combined Arms, then I would say you probably wouldn't like Rising Storm.

edit: I probably should add my own overall opinion, which is that I thought Red Orchestra 2 was pretty awful, bordering on broken, at release. So I never put a whole lot of time into it and didn't keep trying it when they released beta updates. Therefore, my opinion relating RO2 to RS is based on R02 at release and the first bit of the post-release "beta" version.

Netflix has definitely been going downhill pretty fast. Amazon is definitely improving, but considering how awful it was and largely still is, it would be hard for it not to. I'd say, on balance, right now Netflix is still better.

If I wasn't already a customer, I probably wouldn't subscribe to Netflix, but it's not so bad yet I would unsubscribe. If it wasn't for the free shipping with Amazon Prime (the reason I got it in the first place prior to the video thing), I wouldn't pay them for what they offer either.

It's really a shame this is the case. I want a monthly-fee, streaming service with a large library of content, and I would be happy to pay more for it than what's currently available costs. If there were a service that had *everything* over, say, two years old, and with as high a quality as technology allows (and preferably no wonky DRM), I would pay $60 a month for that, easy. That seems unlikely to ever be possible.

Well, it is possible, right now and for free, of course, but I would like to pay the people that make it somehow. As a rule, I haven't pirated anything in a long time, and I'm grown-up enough to just do without if I don't like the terms of a deal, but there is still a tipping point there.

I didn't really associate the hanged man (zombie?) image with suicide until they brought it up. I'd be willing to bet there have been a lot more people hanged against their will than have hanged themselves. Nor really the couple blowing themselves up; at least not in the same sense.

Has the AI improved in RO? I pre-oredered RO2, and though I spent a decent amount of time with the original RO, I felt pretty lost. I like to play with the AI to get my bearings, explore, and geta feel for what's going on. That never really worked ou in RO2 because the AI was so attrocious. Added to its other failings (after release, I put it down and kind of forget about it after a couple weeks), but the Pacific theater is very promising. I can't quite get into the eastern front for some reason. If the improvements have continued (and, at least indicated by how frequently it is (or was) updated, I have hopes for this one. Maybe I'll bight. It's such a great concept, but someone the initial release of RO2 just didn't do it for me.

The image on his screen looks a little canny, like it was added in post. Maybe not.

Also... It looks like he's mostly actually working the thing by manipulating his head and facial muscles (watch his eyebrows raise and lower, his jaw clench, etc.). That's okay I suppose, because it's probably best to have some sort of action or something in mind when you calibrate it for a specific button press. All the same, way too gimmicky for me, but you gotta start somewhere. It's not hard to imagine the technology improving over the coming years and decades to the point where you perform complex and precise actions with it.

In the demo, it looks like when he's driving there is only ever one or two hackable targets in range at any one time, so auto-aim is probably just a matter of cycling between a small number of elements.

Boy, this could definitely go either way. I liked Dead Island a lot despite its faults, but Riptide ended up being a little too samey for me. Given that, though, the basic hack-and-slash mechanics of their engine are fairly well done, so this could end up being a winner.

For some reason the trailer makes me think of Witchaven from back when, which I thought was great at the time.

I suspect I'm going to pick it up. As I remember, so far as first person shooters in general go, BOB was actually pretty poor. The western setting made it stand out enough for me to like it. Maybe that won't be enough this time (I'm certainly not blown away by the trailers I've seen so far), but it could be.

This also got me thinking (probably not the first with the same idea), Far Cry 3's engine could make for a splendid cowboy fps. Ahem... could even just reskin FC3 a bit, thow in silly plot and some simple cut scenes, sell it for $15, and I'd be all over it.

After putting a solid couple weeks into it (and more including the previous couple major releases), I started losing interest because it got too samey--especially the combat against the AI. I know there is a deeper, more interesting game in there somewhere, but I don't think I have the patience to put up with the clunkier bits to ever get there.

A completely new interface (particularly for navigation), more interesting enemy AI, and generally a more lively universe would take this one far. It's almost, but just not QUITE there.

That said, it's pretty much the best thing currently going in this genre, at least until X-Rebirth, Elite4, and Star Citizen (maybe, depending on what that turns out to be) are released.

Looks pretty good. I liked the first one, but never finished it. Lack of polish and some wonkiness to the gameplay made me put it down despite its strengths. This looks like they've done a really good job with first-person fist fighting. Only worry is that it could get repetitive. If your character grows, learns new moves, and by the end you can Bruce Lee an entire room full of thugs, I'll be all over it.

Looks like it could have worked out well in a martial arts setting too. Maybe Jackie Chan style with lots of contextual environmental attacks.

So far it is definitely better than the first one. Not much better, mind you, but better. In that regard, I'm not understanding the reviews at all.

I suspect over the coming weeks, when we start seeing the reviews not written by the usual suspects, the reviews scores will start to creep up. High 7's or low 8's sounds about right to me... unless of course it falls apart three hours into it or something.

Also, I noticed like the first one, it launches in "Below Normal" priority, so you need to alt-tab out and increase the priority in Task Manager to get better performance. I figured they would have sorted that one. Makes you wonder if the code-base isn't effectively untouched.

Well, let me put it this way. I had no idea it came with the DLC until after I bought it, and only then noticed it had also given me a key for the DLC. I'd gone to GMG assuming it had already been released (I bought it last night--and since it was already released on Steam, I didn't figure I was pre-ordering it), so it was a surprise to me when GMG said the release date was the 26th. I was actually about to cancel my pre-order until I realized the codes had showed up in my list, so I just used those in Steam and downloaded it.

Now that you mention what is in the DLC though, I suppose I am glad I got it because of the leveling thing (seeing as how the skills seem identical to the first one).

Aero wrote on Apr 24, 2013, 00:36:apparently you get the pre-order DLC too. I have no idea what that is. Probably nothing intersting.

I don't understand this.

Why wouldn't you look to see what you are getting when buying something?

Because it just came with it. I didn't know I had it until I looked up my keys. It's cheaper than on Steam alone anyways. Seems to me that it just gives you a more powerful weapon to use once the game proper starts. Not really a big deal. I also started with 15XP, and I'm not sure if that's part of the DLC thingy or just the way it goes (since I already earned eall that stuff in the first one, it's just being a little closer to where I finished off the first one.

At any rate, two hours in, and I'm liking it just the same as I like the first one. The graphics are perhaps minorly better, but otherwise it's the same game with the same characters in a new setting. As I mentioned before, this is okay with me since I enjoyed the first one.

I think, for me at least, it will have been money well spent. I don't know how it woks out length-wise, but if I enjoy it for 20+ hours like I did the first, I'm well satisfied with my purchase.

This is all a little premature though, as I only set fot on the island a few minutes before I was too tired and it was bed time.

As Is aid in the last thread, it's a hard game to gauge. The reviews are right in their complaints, but the scores seem artificially low. It's not a 4/10 game. I'd personally give it a 7 or an 8.

It probably appeals to a certain subset of the population. I'm not a big zombie fan, but it works here, and the challenging (though admittedlysometimes frustrating) combat, combined with the exploration and crafting, it just works out to be a good time. Like the first, I'll forget it the moment I'm done, but while I'm playing it, I'm having a good time.

Yeah, he standard GMG discount code works, and since it thinks the release is the 26th (you can still activate on Steam immediately though), apparently you get the pre-order DLC too. I have no idea what that is. Probably nothing intersting.

For $32, though, I bit. Given the time and enjoyment I had with the first one, I'm looking forward to the same with this one. Hopefully.

True, it *could* be so much more, but what it is is good enough for me. Here's hoping a proper sequel with the kinks worked out, a better plot, and more cohesion comes along one day. It really does have the potential to be a wonderful game.

Sort of reminds me of Boiling Point in that respect, which on paper seemed like one of the best games ever, and had some truly brilliant ideas and hilarious characters and dialog (though maybe not intentionally). Didn't pan out in practice though. I understand they totally screwed up the sequel, White Gold, (which I never tried), which is a shame. DI is definitely better than that, it similarly just doesn't live up to the concept as well as it could.

This is definitely a hard one to guage I really enjoyed the first one. I agree with everything negative every review said about it, but somehow I found it to be a wonderful time-waster and though there was nothing memorable about it, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.

More of the same would be okay by me... a disappointment, because they should have improved on its weaknesses with the time and money they spent... but I'm probably going to still buy it during the next lull in the game supply. I'd maybe even pay the full $40 for it.